Monday Night Ramblings

The new year brought me a 40 mile bike ride, some 3000 feet of elevation climbed … sushi dinner preceded and followed by the Discovery channel … some cleaning (more to come) and organizing … and now I’m in bed trying to follow through on one of my personal resolutions (that being to write more).

To start with, the bike ride was great. This last week I’ve ridden 4 times ranging from like 25-40 miles each time … and my poor legs are … the lyrics that came to mind earlier today was “I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly.” in reference to my legs feeling like jelly. We rode along the coast quite a bit, and through Pebble Beach … seeing the ocean as often as I have this last week or so reminds me why I love this state, and why I love the area I grew up in specifically. The Monterey area is just gorgeous. My parents live kind of between Salinas and Monterey out in the country and it’s perfect. They live in a sun pocket, so while it’s foggy in Salinas, and foggy in Monterey/Carmel, it’s sunny where they are. It’s a good 10-20 degrees cooler there than where I currently live, but I love it there. I could just wear jackets and pull-overs more often. That’s all.

And the stars? Yeah. More than you would believe … perhaps not as many as you can see up in Jackson (due to the elevation change and what not) … but still spectacular.

I love the stars, and stargazing … but more on that at another time.

Sushi was great (expensive, but great), which brings me to the Discovery Channel. (I’ll leave the cleaning and organizing to your imagination, and I’ve griped about making my bed single handedly before so I’ll spare you that little tirade)

So I’m watching the Discovery channel before dinner … and I had to skip out on Myth Busters with a MASSIVE slip’n’slide before the final test, so if anyone can point me to a full video of that episode please do so in the comments or via email. After dinner they were showing this show on Moonshiners and Moonshine law enforcement. Here’s what I don’t get: if it’s illegal and we’re following these guys (with the thickest, slowest southern drawl you’ve ever heard) around as they sneak through the woods, brewing their Moonshine all while evading the law … and then we’re following the law around as they try to find these guys who make the Moonshine …

Do you see where I’m losing this little train? If it’s illegal, and we’re televising it … can’t we catch them easily? If we’re following the guys hunting them as well (or at very least involved with law enforcement in some way), aren’t we legally obligated to inform on the Moonshiners? If they get caught … isn’t the Discovery network aiding and abetting criminal activity? Why not follow some organized crime syndicate instead of a couple rednecks?

Something I’ve always wondered about is what the success rate of law enforcement is. If you have 100 criminals running around doing their thing, how many of them are successful? I could see that being misleading though since law enforcement might not know about some % of them (although that statistic itself would be really interesting to know too). But ok, let’s say we’re following all of the cases that the police are working on, what’s their success rate? Do they get their man? I know we can’t answer this (and probably never will be able to), but how often do we actually get the right guy/gal when we catch someone and they’re found guilty in a court of law?

I know we all live in this little cocoon where we believe that the police are really effective and they always get the right person … nobody is wrongly convicted of anything … and everyone gets their just desserts. But I’m pretty sure that’s not the case, and it would be interesting to see just to what degree that’s not true.